Comedy-drama Up in the Air (2009), directed by Jason Reitman and starring George Clooney, tells the story of consultant Ryan Bingham, who lives a rootless existence, with a job that involves laying off employees of companies while trying to provide them with consolation. Audra Gordon, the founder and CEO of Hong Kong-based sustainable fashion brand Beam Bold, which focuses on vivid colours that reflect her heritage in the Caribbean nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines, tells Richard Lord how it changed her life. I watched it just before I moved to Hong Kong in 2011. It influenced my move abroad and a lot of my beliefs. I was in New York, where I grew up from age 13, working for HSBC, which I’d joined in 2005 on the management-trainee programme. It was the old Netflix, where they sent you the movie in an envelope. A lot of scenes in the movie were around ( George Clooney ’s character Ryan Bingham) firing people. He says, “Many brilliant minds have sat across from where I am and never realised their full potential until their backs were against the wall.” He asks, “If money weren’t an issue, what would you be doing?” I was working in banking as a relationship manager, and I loved it, but I was always doing the same thing. My grandmother was a seamstress, I grew up surrounded by colourful fabrics in the Caribbean and I wanted to work in fashion, but I was told I should study finance. I knew I wanted to move, but seeing this movie opened my mind to be more curious about the world, and I started travelling more. ‘The most beautiful things are in nature’: designer Susan Fang’s inspiration Shortly after that, I reached out to this random guy on LinkedIn: he was a black American, he’d been on the HSBC management-trainee programme, and he’d worked in Tokyo and Hong Kong. We had a long phone conversation and he talked about how much he loved Asia. I went online and saw a job managing a team at HSBC’s head office (in Hong Kong). I applied and after one phone call I got the job. I would say that the movie inspired me to become a minimalist and buy better things that last. This ties into my brand’s mission of inspiring more people to buy less and buy better quality clothing. I clearly remember the scene where he asked the audience to put everything they own in a backpack and try to walk, inspiring people to be mindful of the things they hold on to that hold them back in life. My brand was born when I was travelling in Africa, and part of my motivation for starting it was to prevent so much textile waste from ending up in African landfills; that’s why I make everything adjustable, so you don’t end up throwing it away if you lose or gain weight. I was so inspired by this movie that I told my then boss about it and loaned him the film so he could watch it over the weekend. He returned the following Monday and said he was concerned about me because the movie was so depressing. Many people had similar feelings about the film but I found it extremely inspiring: I was inspired to find my passion and purpose. And when you’re truly passionate about what you do, giving up is never an option.